After 6 years in space EO-88 / Nayif-1 is heading towards re-entry. To mark the event of it's demise, AMSAT-UK is offering two awards. These will be individual framed certificates.
Firstly, to the station who submits the last telemetry to the FUNcube Data Warehouse and also to who “guesses” or calculates the re-entry time and date most accurately. Submissions for this award must be made to EO88@amsat-uk.org before midnight (UTC) on July 4th 2023. So time is short to get your entries in.
This spacecraft, with it's mode U/V linear transponder, was launched in February 2017 into a 496x507 km polar orbit. Currently the orbit parameters show a height of around 320 km with the drag at 0.00319. It is now well below the ISS and much lower than at launch. It is not possible to accurately predict the likely deorbit date but it seems that it will certainly be before the end of this year. As the spacecraft continues to perform 100% nominally this is a great shame. Presently it is switching autonomously from high power telemetry when in daylight and with lower power telemetry and the transponder active when in darkness. The solar panels, battery and power system also continue to be reporting nominal numbers, essentially unchanged since the day of launch.It will therefore be a really sad moment when re-entry occurs but in the meantime everyone is encouraged to use the spacecraft whilst it remains available.https://funcube.org.uk/Good luckAMSAT-UK